


The Ghost Monument

by smallstarfox, yasminkhxns



Series: Series 11...but Thasmin [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gender Identity, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 23:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21917248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallstarfox/pseuds/smallstarfox, https://archiveofourown.org/users/yasminkhxns/pseuds/yasminkhxns
Summary: While making their way across Desolation, Yaz and the Doctor end having a couple of heart to hearts.
Relationships: The Doctor/Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Series: Series 11...but Thasmin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1578505
Comments: 13
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

“Doctor?”

The Doctor looked up from where she fiddled with her sonic, attention now fully focused on Yaz. “Alright Yaz? Can’t sleep?” the Doctor’s eyes quickly flicked to the boys, who were deep in slumber.

Yaz shook her head. “My mind won’t rest. This is all… a lot. Being on an alien planet and stuff.”

The Doctor nodded in understanding. “I’d be surprised if you weren’t a little freaked out, Yaz. I don’t blame you for struggling to take all this in, it is a bit intense for a first trip. Sorry about all this by the way. Didn’t calculate for the teleportation dragging you three along,” she said with chagrin, though Yaz just smiled.

“It’s ok. I mean, I’m on an alien planet _—_ an  _ actual  _ alien planet.” she grinned, and the Doctor grinned back, glee glinting in her eyes. “It’s pretty crazy.”

“Pretty crazy indeed.” They were silent for a moment, until the Doctor spoke up again. “Sorry Yaz, you wanted to ask me something?”

“Yeah, I did. Um… I wanted to ask something about you, actually.”

The Doctor noticeably stiffened, though she tried to loosen up and sound friendly, a small “Oh,” slipping out, a pitch higher than usual.

Yaz shifted in her seat, internally debating whether to ask her question after the Doctor’s reaction, but pushed forward nonetheless. “On the train, when you crashed through the roof _—_ I remember you saying something about how before you fell you were a white-haired Scotsman and–”

“Oh, yes! I was. Nice change, this.” the Doctor said, looking down at herself. “At least I think so anyway.”

“Yeah, so… does that mean you just change gender when you feel like it?” Yaz frowned, confused.

“Ah, no,” the Doctor started, relaxing while she answered, no longer concerned with Yaz wanting to delve into her past. “My species have this way of cheating death, sort of, we call it regeneration. Basically, before I met you lot my body was dying, so I essentially made a brand new one so that I didn’t die.” 

“You just… made a new body?”

“Yep, pretty much. Every cell in my body changed. You never know what you’re gonna get really. I haven’t even had a chance to take real proper look at this one yet.”

“Right… ok,” Yaz nodded. “I think I get it? But _—_ what about in the charity shop changing room, didn’t you look then?” Memories of her brief time behind the curtains with the Doctor flashed through Yaz’s brain, the outfits she tried, the  _ lack  _ of clothes on her top half. It made her flush briefly.

“Not really.” the Doctor’s face scrunched, “Was more focused on getting my new clothes, excellent coat choice by the way Yaz.” she complimented, brushing off phantom dust. “That’s a good point though, I don’t really know what I look like. Never been a woman before, it’s all very exciting.” 

“You’ve  _ never  _ been a woman before? How many times have you done that _—_ body change thing?” Yaz quizzed.

“Regeneration, and I’ve done it loads.” 

“Loads?”

“Loads.”

Suddenly, the Doctor gasped, almost making Yaz jump with her enthusiasm. “I know!  _ You  _ can tell me what I look like.” she announced, standing up and moving to Yaz’s side of the boat to sit down next to her, their faces inches from each other in the cramped space.

“M… me?”

“Yeah! Wait, why? Is that not a good idea?” the Doctor looked disappointed and Yaz quickly reassured her.

“No, it’s great, its fine, it’s _—_ yeah, ok.” she nodded, gulping when the Doctor grinned, her eyes shining.

“Brilliant.” she whispered.

“Ok, well,” Yaz began, “You’ve got short blonde hair but I’m pretty sure you know that.”  _ And it looks really soft and I kinda want to run my fingers through it. _

The Doctor nodded, hair bouncing with the action, “Yeah, blows in my face loads, can’t tell if it’s annoying or not yet.” 

“Your eyes…” Yaz trailed off, already lost in them, the Doctor’s gaze was intense, it was something she had noticed very quickly. If you had the Doctor’s full attention, it was like the alien was looking into your soul, seeing every part of you, it was almost intimidating _—_ in the most thrilling way possible, Yaz’s heartbeat increasing under the Doctor’s scrutiny. 

“Yaz?”

“Right, sorry. Um, your eyes are sort of a, hazel-green colour? There are little flecks of gold in them too, they’re really pretty, Doctor.”

“Pretty?”

“Yeah, pretty.”  _ More like gorgeous.  _

Yaz cleared her throat, having to briefly look away, unable to hold the Doctor’s gaze for too long. “You have these little laugh lines in the corners of your eyes, they really stand out when you smile, and you have a deeper frown line, just here,” Yaz lifted a finger, lightly touching the skin between the Doctor’s eyebrows, the touch lingering before Yaz finally pulled away, “It’s cute.”

“Cute?”

“Cute.”

“Hmm, never been called cute before _—_ I don’t think so anyway.”

“Do you _—_ like, being called cute?” Yaz asked, watching as the Doctor pondered her question, eyes wandering around the boat.

“I think I do,” she concluded with a smile and Yaz chuckled.

“ _ Anyway, _ ” Yaz continued, “You have pretty strong cheekbones and jaw and a couple little moles, right” she tapped where one painted the Doctor’s cheek, “here,” and the other. Yaz didn’t fail to notice how the Doctor swallowed hard.

“You have laugh lines on the sides of your mouth too, and…” Yaz got to the Doctor’s lips.

_ No biggie Yaz, just the Doctor’s soft looking really, really inviting lips…  _

“Yaz?”

“And um,” she cleared her throat again, mouth suddenly far too dry. “Your lips.” The Doctor’s lips were parted slightly, her piercing gaze still boring into Yaz with such an intensity that Yaz had to look away, not helped by the fact that her gaze fell back to the Doctor’s lips. “Um, they look really soft.” Yaz internally cringed, not believing that she just told the Doctor her lips looked  _ soft.  _

“Soft?”

“Erm.. yeah?

“You don’t sound sure, Yaz.” 

“Well, I mean–”

“You can touch, if you like.” the Doctor said, totally unaffected. 

Yaz’s heart jumped into her throat. “What?”

“Well you’ve touched other parts of my face, if it’ll help you describe, you can touch me wherever you like.”  _ God — really Doctor?! Did she seriously just word it like  _ **_that_ ** _? _

“Oh… erm, okay.” Yaz nodded quickly, praying the flush of her cheeks wasn’t obvious in the shadows of the boat. She reached up slowly, bracing herself as the pad of her index finger lightly ran across the Doctor’s  _ very  _ soft lower lip and  _ did the Doctor’s breath just catch in her throat?  _ “Yeah, your lips are soft.” 

“Probably ‘cause they’re new.” the Doctor grinned and the skin pulled slightly under Yaz’s touch.

Yaz laughed quietly, the sound a little shaky. “Yeah, probably.” she replied, relinquishing her touch, not letting the disappointment of doing so get to her. 

There was a brief silence between them, electricity practically crackling in the small gap between them as they ended up both chuckling nervously, Yaz clearing her throat for the upteenth time in the past ten minutes. “Has um, has that helped?” Yaz asked, hoping to God that the Doctor wouldn’t ask her to keep describing her beautiful face, Yaz was feeling flustered enough already.. 

“Yeah! A lot actually. Can really,” the Doctor gestured to her head, rolling her wrists as her hands twirled, “see myself better in my head now, you know?”

Yaz nodded in response. “So erm,” she frowned slightly, trying to veer the subject away from the Doctor’s gorgeous features, “How are you finding it in general? Being a woman.” 

The Doctor sat in silence for a moment, thinking. “I mean… I haven’t really thought about it to be honest. Not until now. This feels like the first proper sit down I’ve had since I regenerated. Finally allowing myself a chance to let it sink in. It’s certainly _—_ interesting.”

Yaz’s eyebrows raised. “Good interesting or bad interesting?” 

“I’m not sure.” the Doctor responded. “I think it’s good? It is a nice change. I’ve been a man for so long, it’s like I was a broken record that was stuck. Everything  _ feels  _ a lot softer, but also lighter? But that might just be because I’m smaller. It’s a hard one to decipher or even explain. My people were never bothered with gender, but I’ve spent so much time on Earth, around humans _—_ that now I  _ do  _ consider it. Though I have wanted to be a woman for a while now.” she turned to Yaz, her smile beaming, “So it  _ is  _ exciting.” 

“Well, I’ll tell you now Doctor…” Yaz insinuated, capturing the Doctor’s attention, who was wide-eyed like an intrigued puppy, “Women are far more powerful men.” Yaz smiled and winked, and the Doctor grinned back so bright that it could’ve competed with the two suns of Desolation. Her eyes crinkled at the sides like Yaz had previously described to her friend, and something warm pooled in her chest. 

“You’re right there, Yaz.” the Doctor nodded in agreement, hand patting Yaz’s knee and giving it a light squeeze before she stood, strolling down to the end of the boat to check on Angstrom, who Yaz had forgotten was even there.

_ Note to self Yaz: Don’t start crushing on the alien woman you just met… though I think it’s already too late.  _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally getting the TARDIS back, the Doctor sets about getting back to Sheffield, but not before some run-ins with Yaz that leave her rather confsued.

“I thought maybe you didn’t believe me that I’d get you home.”

“I thought you didn’t believe yourself for a second back there.”

“Who, me? No. Never doubted. Don’t know what you mean. Home, then?”

“You can get us there? Really?”

“Start believing.”

* * *

The Doctor had paused their various attempts to get back to Earth. Something about needing to do some internal calibrations to the new measuring equipment, and something else about the TARDIS still throwing a fit. Which basically meant they hadn’t moved for the last hour and a half. Yaz had no idea what on earth she was talking about anyway, not really. Science wasn’t something she’d paid attention to since she was at school. She had actually kind of zoned out the moment the Doctor had started referring to the ship as a ‘she’ and muttered about telepathic circuits. Not that Yaz knew much about the Doctor anyway to judge what she was saying. All she knew was that she was impossibly clever, liked to ramble, and seemed to have a defeatist anxious streak buried underneath her endless optimism. Despite being far from human, or so she had been told here and there, they all added up to a surprisingly human temperament.

Ryan and Graham were on the opposite side of the console, near the doors. They lounged across the lower step, coats either side of them, talking about how incredible it was to be travelling in space. Yaz was glad they had perked up after the whole deadly desert and killer robots and crash-landings. She herself was only just about starting to calm down finally. She sat with her back against one of the glowing crystalline columns that framed the central command console, watching the Doctor scamper around it and play around with the various instruments on offer to her. From the looks of things, everything was new, to some degree at least. Either that or she just had to act like a toddler around things to push and pull and twist. Considering Ryan had also tried to have a hand at several of the controls several times, it was less of a surprise.

“Look, I know you’re still mad at me, but you’re not playing fair. I said ‘I’m sorry’ I don’t know how many times now. I just want to get these lot home.”

Yaz smiled as the Doctor let out a frustrated huff, going back to twisting more dials and causing the ship to let out more strange noises. It was almost like watching a young child talk to their amazing imaginary friend, she thought. Something about it held her attention raptly. However, there was something else that was still bothering her, and Yaz was determined to at least voice it. She had no idea how much time there was left before they made their way home again.

For all she knew, it could be mere minutes before the ship was off and they were on their way. Yaz slowly pushed herself up off the cool metal floor, making her way over towards the Doctor. She took a moment to look over the console itself, all of its strange gadgets and gizmos, hearing a surprised hum come from her left side. The Doctor smiled towards her, gesturing towards the controls that appeared terribly inviting all of a sudden. Now she understood what Ryan was getting at…

“Beautiful, isn’t she?”

The question took Yaz a little by surprise, if only for still referring to the ship as a ‘she’.

“Um…yeah? Yeah…I guess she is. So; you glad to be back then, Doctor?”

Yaz watched as the Doctor’s smile grew wider for a moment, briefly faltering before she excitedly clapped her hands together. She even did a quick twirl on the spot, her coat causing the slightest draught as she moved. It was still a wonder to her how the Doctor had managed to pick up such a highly eclectic outfit from a tiny charity shop in the middle of Sheffield, and somehow be able to make it work without effort. Much like her undeniably magnetic personality, the outfit drew her attention in every time she so much as looked over towards the alien woman.

“Oh yeah, absolutely! I love the old girl to bits. She was right to be mad at me though…still, I didn’t think it was bad enough to be ghosting in and out of space and time. Really didn’t think I messed things up that badly. Still, I feel a lot safer, a lot more secure. Back on my feet as it were. Although I wish she’d just get me where I need to be, this one time. Not even saying please is working anymore. I think she’s trying to play me for a fool now, have a little joke or something. Aren’t you, old girl?”

The ship responded with another series of beeps, a strange code that left the Doctor smiling again. Twisting around, Yaz moved to lean back against the console, looking up at the tops of the columns that shifted up and down. For a moment, she felt as if they looked as rhythmic as a heartbeat. Like the ship really was alive. Not that she was in the right frame of mind to believe everything the Doctor had told them. Although a part of her, either childish or curious, did. It was entirely possible that her ghost monument…TARDIS…was alive. She had just seen killer robots, a life-like hologram, and witnessed sentient fabric pieces attempt to tear the life out of them all. She almost assumed, at that point, that every word from the Doctor was somehow more plausible than it seemed. Still, she was daydreaming away from her original point, and the Doctor had picked up on it. Her body had stilled, nervous energy dissipating, as she looked over with concerned eyes.

“Are you alright though, Yaz? Sorry…probably should have checked in sooner really. With all of you. Not used to having people around again, you see, either that or I just forgot what manners were. Anyway, really sorry. Won’t happen again. Promise. So. Anything you want to talk about, maybe? Anything at all. Say whatever’s on your mind. No judgement from me. I get all of this is really weird and all. Takes some getting used to.”

Yaz offered a smile, sliding her hands around the base of the console, delighting in the cool metal against her flushed skin. It helped steer her back to the moment.

“I…I still can’t quite wrap my head around all this, if I’m honest. I mean, it’s not every day a random alien shows up, accidentally drags you into the vacuum of space and then across the most deadly planet imaginable. It’s just not exactly normal, is it?”

The Doctor moved a hand around to the back of her neck, gently tugging at her short hair as she looked over to one side and mumbled the next of far too many apologies.

“Didn’t exactly think the setup would drag all of you with me…not even counting the fact that the planet was somehow so far out of orbit. Sorry about that. Again. Again. Really.”

“But, then again…”

Yaz’s words hung in the air slightly as she looked around the strange glowing room once more. Something about the setup made her feel very much at ease. It was homely.

“We’re in space. Actual space! How mad is that?! There was me, honestly thinking that my life was just going to be number crunching and people slagging me off because of who I am. Never in a million years thought this would happen. Even if I had dreamt it.”

There was a pause for a moment, before the Doctor drew her attention with a wave.

“Hold up. Wait. Wait a minute. You get people saying things about you too?”

For a brief moment, Yaz thought there was a flash of something in the Doctor’s eyes. Something…old, beyond wise. Something sad. She had seen her sad today, on quite a number of occasions, but what she thought she saw was something entirely different. There was nothing that Yaz could think of to describe it, but she committed it to memory all the same. However, judging by the Doctor’s reaction of clamping her mouth shut, eyes widening, it was something that Yaz wasn’t meant to know about either. All it did was leave her with more questions, more things she wanted to know, but there was also something that was telling her to leave well enough alone. She decided to agree with the latter part.

“Doctor…what do you mean ‘too’?”

“I…um….”

It was all Yaz really needed to hear, at least for the time being. She pushed herself away from the console, letting her hands fall always into the pockets of her jacket to idly play with the loose threads inside. Another thing she wanted to do was just show the Doctor that she was there for her. Just, drop a hand on her shoulder or something. But she resisted that as well. After all, the woman…alien…whoever, was a complete stranger to her. She would stay that way too, more than likely. No need to be getting too friendly.

“Doctor, whatever you’re going to say…don’t. It’s fine.”

That caught the Doctor off guard, her mouth dropping slightly before closing again as her eyebrows knitted together with clear confusion. All it did was make Yaz smile and laugh quietly to herself. All in all, the Doctor was a real character, and she would miss her when they eventually would part ways and her old life would come tumbling back. It would be a shame that she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about her misadventure.

“I’ll let you get back to getting us home, yeah? Can’t imagine what my mum’s going through, probably running the town ragged wondering why I just disappeared on her. Besides, you don’t owe me, or any of us for that matter, things about you. Who you are, or your past, or whatever. You’re already good enough just being that random woman who dropped through the roof of a train and stopped some bizarre alien hunting season going on. I can live with that, in a brief exchange for the stars. Seems like a fair trade to me.”

With that piece said and done, Yaz made her way over towards Ryan and Graham. They welcomed her with open arms and mad-cap theories about what else was out there beyond the doors of the strange police-box shaped spaceship. Thoughts also turned, briefly, towards Grace and how she would have absolutely loved to have seen it all with them. How she would have given everyone there much too sage advice about their little personal quandaries. As the discussion reached new and exciting levels, the Doctor looked on with complete and utter bewilderment. Ever so slowly, a wide beaming smile came across her face as she set about trying to get the TARDIS to finally land back on Earth. With her mind now free, she could hear the hidden melodic hum of her ship ringing loud and clear, pushing back into her mind and enveloping her in warmth and love. She was so very happy to be back on the TARDIS. The mad woman and her box.

However, her thoughts soon wandered backwards rather quickly. In all her hundreds of thousands of years, it made quite a change for her not to have to explain herself in any capacity. Even if her terribly unfortunate technical abductees did want to know about her, she was glad that they were happy to just get on with things and make their way home. Really, it would make the parting all the easier. Even if, secretly, the Doctor was already starting to get a little bit fond of the wayward humans…and would find it beyond impossible to actually let them go. But, they had fixed lives to lead. Important jobs to do. Families to stick close to and rebuild and grow stronger with. The Doctor could not, in all good faith, break apart those things. So, she continued to do her best. Try and try and try again to get her TARDIS to let them go. Because, in the end, it was better for them to part of their own volition, than for her track record and checkered past to come back to haunt her again. No more losing friends.

A few moments later, the Doctor finally got the TARDIS into motion, leaping with joy as the ship began to rock and shake and whirr into life. It was a decidedly rocky start, and landing, jolting her human stowaways quite a bit. Quickly running past them, she stood next to the doors and sharply pushed them open…

Before quickly closing them again as the TARDIS shook from the aftermath of a bellowing roar.

“So…um…not Sheffield. Definitely not Sheffield. Second time’s the charm, right?”

* * *

Later that night, when the Doctor was sure that she had managed to shuffle her unintended extras to new spare rooms dotted around her ship, she made her way back to the main console room. With a clap of her hands, the warm golden light flooded the room, dimming to comfortable levels in time to her steps. She was still in awe at what had happened to her TARDIS in her time away. She had completely redesigned herself from the outside in. It was remarkable. Realistically, any type of TARDIS should not have been able to do it, but ever since they had had the privilege of meeting her…something had changed. Her TARDIS had grown. Developed. Blossomed into something beyond words. She had always been sentient, had a mind of her own, but she was absolutely thriving. It was part of the reason the Doctor had been so lost without her. She could feel their telepathic connection fading through all of time and space, felt her TARDIS disappearing from her. It broke her hearts, made her scared, left her almost catatonic. Except she was back. They were back. And nothing in the universe could compare to the love she felt for her.

As she approached the console and stretched a hand out to touch the central column, she heard the familiar sound of beeps and whirrs in her ear. She saw the familiar images in her mind, wrapping around her, making her break out into a smile.

“Oh, you know how much I missed you, old girl…”

She received more sounds in response, leaving the Doctor quietly laughing to herself. She drew patterns over the glowing crystal with her fingertips, feeling the vibrations settling in her bones. Really, it was enough to…

“What? What’s so wrong with being a little teary-eyed? I thought I’d lost you for good…you were fading…I had to get back to you. I’m just sorry it took so long. Things…things happened…after you kicked me out. Rightly so too. Um. I’m still sorry about that…I know how destructive regenerations can be, especially at the end. Beginning? I don’t even know anymore. It’s been a long time, is all.”

Taking her hand back, she thrust both of them into the pockets of her coat as she twisted on her heels and pressed her back into the cool curved metal. More images turned around in her mind, sights of all the different things the TARDIS had done to her interior. All the different styles she had tried out. If she was being honest, the natural look was by far her favourite of them all. Sure, her former selves liked things all techy and mechanical…she did too, to some degree. But everything was warm now, inviting, tactile and sensational. It was everything she had wanted and more, and better yet it was what her TARDIS had chosen.

“Look, I’ll always think you’re sexy, no matter how you do yourself up. I fell in love with you for a reason. Wasn’t lying when I said I liked it, you know.”

As she spoke, eyeing up the front doors and wondering what part of the vortex they were currently travelling through, the Doctor was otherwise distracted from the gentle pad of feet making their way down the hallway. Yaz couldn’t sleep. She was still buzzing with adrenaline and anxiety from the last planet they had unintentionally landed on. None of them had been expecting laser fire, that was for sure. All she had wanted to do was to find some kind of kitchen, assuming the ship did indeed have catering facilities of some kind, but the maze of hallways had landed her back in the central room. Really, she had been following a voice for the last few seconds, a voice she knew as the Doctors. For some reason, she was talking, and Yaz was convinced that Ryan and Graham were sound asleep. So, who was she talking to? When she arrived at the console room, she lingered around the opening archway, simply content to watch. She had no idea what the Doctor had said or done up until that point, but she heard her laugh.

And heard some strange mechanical noises. She was talking to her ship again.

“I do love you. Sure I’m one absolutely careless owner who probably does more harm than good most of the time, but you’re the most important thing to me. I’d be a rubbish Time Lord without a TARDIS. Besides, you’re the one who technically stole me, remember? You’re just as bad as me. Always a rebel…dashing off across time and space without a care in the world…we make a right pair, you and me.”

Brushing some of the sleep from her eyes, Yaz propped herself up against the side of the archway and watched as the Doctor pushed herself away from the console and twirled around on the spot. Her arms were spread wide, an even wider smile across her face. She had never seen the Doctor smile like that. Sure, she had been happy to be back to her ship…Yaz had to admit there was something undeniably cute about it. She really was just an overgrown child. Then again, who wouldn’t be if they had access to the vast endless wonders of space? The TARDIS beeped and whined again, the lights flashing in the room briefly as the Doctor paused mid spin to look up at the ceiling. She looked lost in thought again. Yaz wondered if she should just turn around and leave, but something was drawing her further into the room, urging her to announce herself.

“Doctor, what’re you doing?”

Arms and legs went in all directions as the Doctor practically jumped out of her skin, raising her arms as if she was about to clock Yaz right in the face. Admittedly, she jumped a little as well, feeling quite awake suddenly. It took a moment before the Doctor realised it was her, dropping her hands and laughing nervously.

“Yaz! I…um…I’m just…what’re you doing up? Don’t you like the room you’ve got? Is something not right in there? Do I need to come and-”

Yaz held up a hand and shook her head, keen to stop the Doctor’s rambling. She really did like to talk about things and ask far too many questions.

“No, Doctor, I’m fine. The room is fine. Just couldn’t sleep is all. I wanted to see if I could find a kitchen or something but I ended up here. You…you mind pointing me in the right direction? This place is a bit of a maze.”

Taking her hands out of her pockets and making her way over to Yaz, the Doctor ran one hand through her hair and smiled again. She didn’t exactly know where the kitchen was herself, but she could feel the TARDIS putting the ideas into her head. She really needed to take some time to herself and explore all the new features of her ship. With a brief bit of gesturing, she passed the directions over to Yaz; head for the first left, take two rights and the first door on the right. Seemingly settled by her answer, the two of them exchanged another quiet goodnight before Yaz made her way back out of the console room and out of her line of sight. The Doctor stayed still and watched, waited and listened until she was sure that Yaz really had gone on her way.

She let out a weary sigh, feeling a strange twinge in her chest. Were her hearts acting up? Had she not regenerated properly, or recovered from her fall? Had being on Desolation sent her off kilter? There was no time to ponder anything, because the TARDIS was already making fun of her. Again. Some things never really changed.

“Oi, watch your language! I am perfectly fine, thank you.”

The TARDIS let out a slow series of beeps, causing the Doctor to close her eyes and smile weakly. The twinge changed, morphed into something warm and fuzzy. Something that the Doctor had not felt for a considerably long time. It was nice.

“Yeah…I like her too…”

The rest of the night, the Doctor pondered over the ramifications of sending her new friends home again. She had decided they were her friends from the moment she had met them, and her feelings hadn’t changed at all. There was enough space in her hearts to care for all of them. Except, that was both a good thing and a bad thing. She was starting to not want to let them go. It had taken all of her strength not to stick around in the places the TARDIS had landed and take them on another adventure. She had promised to send them home and that was what she was going to do. Even if it hurt. While the Doctor pondered, the TARDIS stayed silent, ever vigilant over the extras on board. Keeping a watch of them. Gauging their thoughts, their feelings, everything about them. It was possibly an invasion of privacy but she didn’t really care for that. Her job was to make sure her Thief was happy and safe.

And that meant keeping back what she had seen and heard of one particular human.

As the self-imposed night began to draw through, Yaz stood in the small kitchen, clutching a cup of tea in both hands. At least she could tell the boys in the morning where they could get something proper to eat and drink. However, she was too distracted by something else. She had noticed that something was feeling a little…off with her. Putting the tiredness aside, it was almost as if she were still anxious about something. Her stomach had twisted itself into knots and sent tingles through her body, her heart was staggering a staccato beat in her chest, and her hands had been clammy before touching the warm mug. The more she thought about it, the more she thought about the Doctor, and the more she had to drink the still-hot tea to take her mind off it. She hadn’t forgotten the conversation they had had earlier in the day, on the boat, and various parts of that were slowly making it into the forefront of her mind. Suddenly unable to finish the rest of her drink, Yaz set the mug down on the counter and set off trying to find her bedroom again. Perhaps all she really needed was a good night’s sleep.

_ ‘She’s nice…nothing more. There’s nothing wrong in wanting to cheer her up. It was just the right thing in the moment. She’ll be gone soon…and I’ll never see her again…’ _


End file.
